Starfinder Armory

It's a dangerous universe out there, and often the difference between survival and being the next meal for an angry ksarik is having the right equipment. From guns to augmentations to high-tech and magical devices for every imaginable situation, Starfinder Armory is your guide to everything you need, whether you are a frontline fighter, stealthy spy, or scholarly spellcaster. Inside this book you'll find the following:

Scores of new weapons, filling out the options for weapons of every category, level, and type and rules to customize your weapons through weapon accessories, weapon fusions, and different weapon manufacturers.

New suits of armor, including light, heavy, and powered armor for nearly every level and numerous armor upgrades.

A wide range of new equipment-themed player options, including class features for every class!

Dozens of new pieces of technological, magic, and hybrid items, as well as numerous personal items, new augmentations from cybernetics to magitech and necrografts, and more!

Average product rating:

Mind blowing!

A ridiculously huge amount of equipment of all sorts! Very well illustrated and polished. The expansion this book adds to the game is incredible. The Armory is both much needed AND a very welcome addition, as the core rule book had just enough to be acceptable, in this specific regard, I would say. I can find absolutely no reason not to buy this book. This will give you material to chew on for years to come!

More options than I could shake a stick at except

As mentioned the armor was the one thing that was lacking a bit. Most everything seems to be a little bit of a tweak off of whats already around. (I was hoping for a Low AC armor with lots of slots)

But great googley moogley the customization options. Scopes, enchantments, manufacturers, sights, rails, bipods tripods armor mods... there's even office gods. (yes. really) Three different ways to customize a weapon, magic items that can go in armor slots.. my characters have saved up their entire wealth for this moment and I think I'm still short of cash just for the odds and ends.

The weapons aren't just good a lot of them are fun. You can gain proficiency in a weapon through profession skills (Hint: do not mess with miners they are proficient with some very nasty weapons)

*Crosses fingers for an extra page, paragraph, sidebar, or something that gives a satisfactory answer to why shields and armor work they way they do; i.e., why your shields don't take damage until after your armor has already failed to do its job despite shields being traditionally envisioned as OUTSIDE and IN FRONT OF the armor.

I expect this book to be 160 pages, as it is the same price as the Alien Archive.

That's really small for this price though.

The Alien Archive was top notch quality, only feedback you could give about it is that it's too small per $. We can't use the argument anymore that Starfinder is a game where we would still need to find out the popularity.. ;-)

I expect this book to be 160 pages, as it is the same price as the Alien Archive.

That's really small for this price though.)

What do you think the standard price for modern 160 page hardback RPG books is? to work that out, you can't look at other books of different sizes and try to extrapolate. Find other 160 page hardback full color RPG books printed this yea, and check their price.

Varun Creed wrote:

We can't use the argument anymore that Starfinder is a game where we would still need to find out the popularity.. ;-)

You might be surprised how far out these books are planned and scheduled. :)

More weapons? Count me in! The weapon progression was something that kinda bothered me. Unless you're a Solarian, you'd basically be switching back and forth between different weapon styles or elements just to keep up. Here's hoping we can expand that arsenal, not only for more variety, but to also allow me to be thematically consistent while progressing through levels!

And as unlikely as this, I am also hoping for something akin to the Shield Weaves from the Phantasy Star Portable/Online series, completely segregating defense from aesthetic. It wouldn't really do much gameplay-wise, but when the only armor that matches your character flavorwise is Defrex Hide, and maybe Second Skin... I say it'd be pretty nice.

My birthday is the last day of July. I signed on for the main book subscription service. I do hope this means that by the time my birthday rolls around I will have more toys to include in the pre-gens I intend to make for the furry con I will be attending the weekend before Halloween as well as a few things for my ysoki solarion to dream about using in starfinder society.

I would really like to see a machine, maybe something for your ship, that can break gear back down into UPB's. Since money and UPB's are interchangeable, and literally everything except drugs are made from them, why not just make a device that converts them back? It would make it so a properly outfitted group would never have to worry about going back to town unless they want to.
Just a thought...

We could definitely use more power armour, given we only have 5 and they all have different niches, making it extremely difficult to make a long-term character focused in it.

Amen to this! I plan on going into power armor and I'm more a little worried about the gap between level 5 battle harness and the level 10 Spider Suit... It would also be nice to have more "generalist" medium-size power armor options like the battle harness. Spider/Flight are both awesome concepts, but they're also rather specialized and being Large/Huge can be a serious detriment in the wrong campaign. Having to strip down to your Second Skin (TM) because your tank can't fit inside the dungeon is not a good feeling.

I'd especially love a level 7 Power Armor. A full BAB character who's serious about his armor can spring for it at 5 (buying a level+2 armor as soon as he qualifies for Power Armor feat) and any character with medium BAB who picks the feat up at level 7 has an equal level armor option available instead of having to settle for the battle harness, an armor that's already two levels below them.

You might be surprised how far out these books are planned and scheduled. :)

I've always wondered about this - is there any point in making suggestions or asking for specific things when a product is announced, or has the content already been decided on and/or written by the time the book shows up on the website?

This book will start shipping in ~seven months. At what point is the content locked in?

You might be surprised how far out these books are planned and scheduled. :)

I've always wondered about this - is there any point in making suggestions or asking for specific things when a product is announced, or has the content already been decided on and/or written by the time the book shows up on the website?

This book will start shipping in ~seven months. At what point is the content locked in?

While a book is technically still in flux until we send it to the printer, we generally have the content decided months in advance of that when we outline it and assign it to authors. Suggestions and wish lists, thus, often come after much of a book's work has been done, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't make last-minute changes to get in a particularly vital idea. It's more likely, however, that we'd look to past product threads when outlining future projects in the same vein. There's a reason, after all, that fans generally start a Bestiary request thread long before the next volume in the line has been announced.

It would also be interesting if they added some advanced melee weapons with the Operative property.

I doubt it will happen because of the damage curve with trick attack.

Operatives need to spend a feat to get advanced melee weapons.

Others are likely to be interested in Operative weapons and some of them (such as ranged Solarians) would have the proficiency and are likely to have a better Dex than Strength.

That plus I find it hard to believe in a world with Technomancers and such, you wouldn’t get someone making a plasma dagger or something like that. Once the blueprint is available, anyone with the UPBs and skill could craft one.

You might be surprised how far out these books are planned and scheduled. :)

I've always wondered about this - is there any point in making suggestions or asking for specific things when a product is announced, or has the content already been decided on and/or written by the time the book shows up on the website?

This book will start shipping in ~seven months. At what point is the content locked in?

While a book is technically still in flux until we send it to the printer, we generally have the content decided months in advance of that when we outline it and assign it to authors. Suggestions and wish lists, thus, often come after much of a book's work has been done, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't make last-minute changes to get in a particularly vital idea. It's more likely, however, that we'd look to past product threads when outlining future projects in the same vein. There's a reason, after all, that fans generally start a Bestiary request thread long before the next volume in the line has been announced.

Mark's right.

Sometimes we find that, as a result of how the art and text flow, we need to add 500 words to a section at the last minute, in which case knowing everyone desperately wants star-halfling cyber-muffins is really useful. Other times we read these threads and think "If only the book hadn't;t already shipped to the printer."

usually we're somewhere between those two extremes.

But what can't change on a dime is things like how big a book is. When scheduling the workflow, we need start and end dates not just for writing, but development, editing, art and map orders, layout, and so on. And those dates can't be before the previous books are done, and cannot push back when alter things on the schedule happen 9and there's never just one book going through the pipeline).

So even if everyone agrees six months before a release date that it's be better if a book was 64 pages longer, the schedule just can't accommodate that without pushing back everything, including products in unrelated lines that have subscribers ex-ecting monthly (or bi-monthly, or quarterly) products. And while we try to build in slack, we NEED that for when some disaster strikes, like play testing discovering a whole subsystem is broken in a very specific way very late in the process.
We can, of course, make books SMALLER, but no one ever seems to advocate for that.

I would really like to see a machine, maybe something for your ship, that can break gear back down into UPB's. Since money and UPB's are interchangeable, and literally everything except drugs are made from them, why not just make a device that converts them back? It would make it so a properly outfitted group would never have to worry about going back to town unless they want to.

Just a thought...

AtD

You can already break items down for their UPB (10%). The issue is that it doesn't say how or how long it takes to do so.

You might be surprised how far out these books are planned and scheduled. :)

I've always wondered about this - is there any point in making suggestions or asking for specific things when a product is announced, or has the content already been decided on and/or written by the time the book shows up on the website?

This book will start shipping in ~seven months. At what point is the content locked in?

While a book is technically still in flux until we send it to the printer, we generally have the content decided months in advance of that when we outline it and assign it to authors. Suggestions and wish lists, thus, often come after much of a book's work has been done, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't make last-minute changes to get in a particularly vital idea. It's more likely, however, that we'd look to past product threads when outlining future projects in the same vein. There's a reason, after all, that fans generally start a Bestiary request thread long before the next volume in the line has been announced.

Mark's right.

Sometimes we find that, as a result of how the art and text flow, we need to add 500 words to a section at the last minute, in which case knowing everyone desperately wants star-halfling cyber-muffins is really useful. Other times we read these threads and think "If only the book hadn't;t already shipped to the printer."

usually we're somewhere between those two extremes.

But what can't change on a dime is things like how big a book is. When scheduling the workflow, we need start and end dates not just for writing, but development, editing, art and map orders, layout, and so on. And those dates can't be before the previous books are done, and cannot push back when alter things on the schedule happen 9and there's never just one book going through the pipeline).

So even if everyone agrees six months before a release date that it's be better if a book was 64 pages...

I really should check the pathfinder boards more often, missed this post for over a week. Thank you for the comprehensive reply Owen! :)

Reading between the lines here, and feel free to ignore this because I'm fishing shamelessly: Have there been any discussion on or plans to make larger Starfinder AP/rules books in the future...?

It would also be interesting if they added some advanced melee weapons with the Operative property.

I doubt it will happen because of the damage curve with trick attack.

Operatives need to spend a feat to get advanced melee weapons.

Others are likely to be interested in Operative weapons and some of them (such as ranged Solarians) would have the proficiency and are likely to have a better Dex than Strength.

That plus I find it hard to believe in a world with Technomancers and such, you wouldn’t get someone making a plasma dagger or something like that. Once the blueprint is available, anyone with the UPBs and skill could craft one.

Well, there is the Inferno Knife, page 12 of Dead Suns volume 2. Not quite a plasma knife but halfway there and with the Operative tag. Since the blurb mentions its needless complexity yet it is still classified as basic melee, I could see a plasma knife being spec'd the same.

Oh man I CAN"T WAIT. I like the sound of smart grenades and smart ammo. Something like remote controlled rockets or explosive devices, all of this would be short range, like within 200 feet.

Maybe a shield that can collapse into a gauntlet and then on command unfold. Like a heavy shield equivalent in pathfinder.

Maybe this is too much but maybe some modules that can enhance the AI of the mechanics cortex.

Now I am fishing, unless I missed it somewhere, what is the plan for Player companion equivalent in Starfinder?

So far no Player Companions are planned for SF.

But there will be 3 hardcovers every year it seems (one of them an Alin Archive), which personally i like much better than a monthly PC, because it gives the developers more time to collect ideas and fine-tune them than a monthly book.
At 160 (Alien Archives)-216 (Pact Worlds) pages for $45 it is also the size of 5-6 Player Companions at the price of only three.

Oh man I CAN"T WAIT. I like the sound of smart grenades and smart ammo. Something like remote controlled rockets or explosive devices, all of this would be short range, like within 200 feet.

Maybe a shield that can collapse into a gauntlet and then on command unfold. Like a heavy shield equivalent in pathfinder.

Maybe this is too much but maybe some modules that can enhance the AI of the mechanics cortex.

Now I am fishing, unless I missed it somewhere, what is the plan for Player companion equivalent in Starfinder?

So far no Player Companions are planned for SF.

But there will be 3 hardcovers every year it seems (one of them an Alin Archive), which personally i like much better than a monthly PC, because it gives the developers more time to collect ideas and fine-tune them than a monthly book.
At 160 (Alien Archives)-216 (Pact Worlds) pages for $45 it is also the size of 5-6 Player Companions at the price of only three.

I was just curious. I really hate the Player Companions. Would rather them not do it. But some time into the books and make them worth the money. And for content to be totally worth it.

Reading between the lines here, and feel free to ignore this because I'm fishing shamelessly: Have there been any discussion on or plans to make larger Starfinder AP/rules books in the future...?

Many. And there will be more. We nearly have that conversation anew every time we schedule a new hardback. (Softbacks tend to be more standardized sizes, though we also periodically investigate if those make sense at their current size). Very little is done here without some thought (and often a meeting or two) going into it.

However looking at things and discussing them often can't overcome the factors that caused the original decision to get made, and there's no point in constantly declaring "We thought about changing something... but we're not going to," so many things look unconsidered and monolithic from the outside, despite us reviewing and reconsidering and analyzing on a regular basis.

Reading between the lines here, and feel free to ignore this because I'm fishing shamelessly: Have there been any discussion on or plans to make larger Starfinder AP/rules books in the future...?

Many. And there will be more. We nearly have that conversation anew every time we schedule a new hardback. (Softbacks tend to be more standardized sizes, though we also periodically investigate if those make sense at their current size). Very little is done here without some thought (and often a meeting or two) going into it.

However looking at things and discussing them often can't overcome the factors that caused the original decision to get made, and there's no point in constantly declaring "We thought about changing something... but we're not going to," so many things look unconsidered and monolithic from the outside, despite us reviewing and reconsidering and analyzing on a regular basis.

Awesome! Even if you don't implement changes it's good to know that you're keeping your options in mind when looking at the publishing schedule ahead. :)

To throw in my $.02, I love Starfinder's increased focus on hardcovers over more frequent softcover material like the player companions. I feel confident that the material will be kept up to date with FAQs and erratas, and I don't feel as overwhelmed as I did when I initially tried to keep up with the Pathfinder publishing schedule and was bombarded by bi-weekly releases. However I really wouldn't mind seeing more pages added to the SF hardcovers. Alien Archives is a great book but it feels a little light, especially if you compare it to the first bestiary.

I'm also a little concerned that my groups seems to be going through Dead Suns books faster than they're being released. I've picked up the first book of Legendary Planet as a backup in case we run into a "gap month", but I'm less than thrilled with the idea of putting Dead Suns on hold - in my experience players tend to get excited about their new character concepts, then the old game goes on the back burner or dies off.